Posted 6:08 PM by Floyd

Time for more drivel from the San Jose Mercury News letters page! First, let's see what Bay Area geniuses have to say about the aftermath of the war with Iraq:

What do we do about our quagmire in Iraq? The knee-jerk reaction is to send in more U.S. troops. Remember the constant demands for a few thousand more troops in Vietnam?

It is time to eat crow and request a sizable U.N. peacekeeping force with broad authority. Our current request for U.N. volunteers is too feeble to be successful.

Bob Roy
Sunnyvale

The UN will have "broad authority" to do what, Roy Bob? Get blown to bits and run out of Baghdad with their tails between their legs?

Imagine what Iraq could have done with all those billions of dollars which were spent on destroying it. Imagine the food they could have bought, the water treatment plants they could have built and the medicine they could have purchased to help heal the sick and suffering. War is such a waste.

Ted Rudow III
Menlo Park

Imagine all the palaces that could have been built and the Kurds that could have been gassed.

Ted is probably some aging hippie who protested the Vietnam war 35 years ago, and thinks that every half-baked idea that comes out of his head is popular and brilliant. Pacifism is such a waste.

The recent violence in Afghanistan, Baghdad and the Middle East emphasizes the fact that we lack the capability as an individual nation to deal with the various religious and ethnic related problems of the entire world.

The only solution is to make every effort to strengthen the United Nations. We simply cannot ignore the U.N. and dictate to the world on our own terms.

Mel Hirsekorn
Redwood City

Well, it is true that we lack the capability to fix worldwide religious and ethnic problems. That's okay though, because we are not trying to deal with those issues. We're trying to deal with the planes-flown-into-skyscraper-related problems.

As for strengthening the UN, let's run the numbers:

The US gets one vote.
Iran gets one vote.
Syria gets two votes (one for itself, one for its puppet Lebanon).